Today I did an experiment in math. My dad and I ran rope through a pulley, which was attached to a beam on a ladder. Once we ran the rope through the pulley we tied it to a bucket that had a 25 pound weight in it. We measured the distance from the knot on the bucket to the bottom of the pulley. This was the maximum amount the bucket could go up before running into the pulley. This distance was 26 inches. With the weight and the distance moved, we calculated the work to move the weighted bucket from the floor to its highest point.

For our second experiment, we added another pulley, which is called a block and tackle. This time, I had to pull the rope 56 inches to get the bucket to move the same 26 inches off the floor. When there were three pulleys, I had to move the rope 93 inches to get the bucket to move 26 inches. When there were 4 pulleys, I had to move the rope 116 inches.

My dad asked me to figure out how much I would need to pull the rope if there were five pulleys. To start, I calculated the work with one pulley.Work equals force times distance or w=fd. So for the first equation of work is 650 lbs in = (25 lbs)(26in). The bucket weighed the same in each experiment and it moved the same in each experiment, so the work done in each experiment was the same. However the amount of force I had to use to pull the bucket seemed to decrease the more pulleys we added. This makes sense because the work done to the bucket has to be equal to the work I did. Since I moved more each time a pulley was added, it makes sense that it would be with less force. It is like a trade, you are trading distance for force. Next, I made a line graph to the show how a decrease in force relates to an increase in distance. `Last, I calculated a ratio between distance I had to pull the rope and number of pulleys. I figured out this was about 29. With this ratio I was able to predict that I would have to move 145 inches. I used that value in the work equation to predict that I would only need 4.4 lbs of force to lift 25 lbs if I had 5 pulleys.

The Rosetta space mission was approved in November of 1993. The craft was built by engineers from all around the world. The scheduled year the spacecraft would take in 2003 but was postponed to 2004 due to a malfunction in the spacecraft. This was mission was a part of ESA’s Horizon’s Programme. The Mission took 10 years to orbit the comet. The mission was named rosetta after the rosetta stone because both are going to tell us more about the world and the universe. And finally on November 12 2014 the spacecraft landed and engineers and scientists rejoiced. That is what I learned about the Rosetta spacecraft.

If you did not know flubber or gak depending on what you call it, is a polymer. Polymers are made of lots of monomers that are linked together. Monomers are molecules that are able to bond to make long chains. Flubber actually is a polymer made from hydrocarbons joined together by weak intermolecular bonds.The elmers glue is the source of the hydrocarbons , the sodium borate links monomers together to make this polymer. Other than gak there are many other products that are polymers. Some of these include formica, nylon, polyester, polystyrene, and saran. Polymer can be be defined as “many members” because poly means many and mer means members. The origin of the word polymer comes from Greece. Another fun fact of is that flubber absorbs heat from your hands and then makes the flubber feel cold. This is called an endothermic reaction where it absorbs heat. That is my post on flubber I suggest you make it.